


The Princess, the Skeletons, and the Dragon

by Yoshichao



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Amnesia, Asexual Sans (Undertale), F/M, Feminine Nicknames, Fluff, Harem, Multi, No Smut, Plot, Reader-Insert, Romance, gender ambiguous reader, one more skeleton pair to show up later, reader doesn't show up until chapter 3 or 4, reader is somewhat dense to everyone's Feelings, the romance is actually secondary to the plot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-08
Updated: 2020-01-05
Packaged: 2021-02-27 02:07:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21719878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yoshichao/pseuds/Yoshichao
Summary: Upon hearing a rumour about disappearing castles and glowing dragons, a half-enthusiastic and half-reluctant skeleton family goes on a road trip in pursuit of adventure, glory, and the affections of a waiting damsel in distress. Imagine their surprise when not only is the castle real, but so is the dragon! And what of the princess...?You. You are certainly NOT a princess, and you have no idea why these boneheads keep insisting that you are. More importantly however: how did you get in this castle?!
Relationships: Papyrus (Undertale)/Reader, Sans (Undertale)/Reader
Comments: 31
Kudos: 105





	1. The Adventure Begins!

**Author's Note:**

> (if you are unfamiliar with my works: i am currently on a quest to post ALL my fic drafts that have at least one completed chapter. this is one of those fics and thus has no immediate future in being continued beyond what i have, but check the end notes for more information about that.)
> 
> so months before my platonic skeleton harem series "The Fame Monster" began with "Celebrity Status" (go read that btw it's fun) i intended to write a more traditional romantic harem fic. this is that fic! did it have any affect on the development of my later fic? honestly probably not aside from serving as extra writing practice for writing non-joke skeleton fics, but hey! welcome to the fic anyways!! 
> 
> this fic is only going to have five skeletons pairs in it: the usual (for me, anyways) collection of UT, UF, US, and SF, but the fifth is going to be... a surprise!! since this pair doesn't get formally introduced til a bit later, i won't say who they are or put them in the tags yet, but you might be able to guess just by the premise of this fic. i will say that it is an AU or alternate take on said AU, so get excited/disappointed for that! 
> 
> here's the list of nicknames used for each skelebro in the first few chapters:  
> undertale: Sans & Papyrus  
> underfell: Red & Edge  
> underswap: Blue(berry) & Stretch  
> swapfell: Black(berry) & Rus
> 
> reader doesn't show up until chapter 3 or 4 (which are not chapters i have completed - oops!), so please enjoy a bunch of boneheads bumbling around until then. next chapter will likely be posted the week of january 5th. if it's not up by then, check the schedule in my profile to see if it's been pushed back.

“P-PAPY? ARE YOU SURE THIS IS THE RIGHT WAY?”

“hold on a sec,” Stretch mumbles as he looks back and forth between the physical map in his hands and the pictures on Sans’ phone. Did they make a wrong turn somewhere? The map says there  _ should  _ be a road here, and the pictures indicate they  _ should  _ be driving through grassy plains and rocky cliffsides, but when they look out the window all they can see is fog and the outlines of trees, as if they somehow drove into a forest.

A forest that was getting dangerously more and more narrow.

Once upon a time (about three days ago), Sans, Stretch, and Red were lounging on the couch and making jabs at a trashy medieval romance movie they found, when suddenly Papyrus and Blue burst into the room with stories they found of a  _ real life _ castle and a  _ real life _ princess trapped inside by a  _ REAL LIFE DRAGON!!! _ Obviously, the lazier skeletons thought their brothers were getting roped into just another one of human culture’s crazy myths.

“secret castles an’ princesses, huh?” Red relaxes further into his seat, letting himself get sucked into the soft cushions. “sounds like a  _ royal  _ hoax t’ me.”

Sans reaches for a bottle of ketchup sitting on the coffee table before sinking back into his comfy, lazy position. He puts the bottle in the crook of his arm, not taking a drink from it yet. “i agree, this sounds like a prank someone is trying to  _ drag-on _ for far too long.”

“AGH! THIS IS NO TIME FOR PUNS!” Papyrus yells in exasperation. “IT’S REAL! LOOK!!!”

He thrusts his phone into his brother’s face, and Red and Stretch are curious enough to lean in for a peek. On the screen is a picture of somewhere with incredibly dense fog, and there’s a faint silhouette of what is admittedly a castle-like shape. But there’s no other detail that could point to it  _ actually  _ being a castle.

“welp, that’s a castle,” Sans says with a hint of sarcasm. “looks like you’re right - you really cleared the  _ fog  _ from my eyes.”

The three lazy skeletons snicker and Blue, recognizing that he and Papyrus aren’t being taken seriously, pulls up a picture on his own phone and presents it as well. “WE’RE TELLING THE TRUTH! SEE, HERE’S A PICTURE OF THE DRAGON!”

This one is somehow even worse than the previous picture on the account that it’s extremely blurry. There’s a white light captured in the photo that’s spiky enough to look kind of dragon-like, but the picture quality is too bad to make out any details. 

“ohhh, ok, i see it now.” Stretch points at the picture with a bony finger, vaguely outlining the shape. “see, right there? yeah, this picture really sheds some  _ light  _ on the situation.”

Red makes a show of immediately understanding everything. “oh yea, look, there’s the horns, an’ that looks like a tooth… i’m surprised this story hasn’t  _ scaled  _ t’ the front page ‘f international news yet.”

“how much longer can we  _ drag-on _ these puns?”

“YOU ALREADY USED THAT ONE!!!” Blue gets a wink and a shrug in response from his lazy counterpart, which just makes him groan in frustration again.

Papyrus throws his arms up in the air. “UGH, FINE! YOU GUYS ARE TOO LAZY TO BE TRUE KNIGHTS ANYWAYS! BLUE AND I WILL GO ALONE AND SAVE THE BEAUTIFUL PRINCESS OURSELVES!”

“T-TRUE KNIGHTS…?!” Blue’s eyes are practically sparkling at the idea. “MWEH HEH HEH! OF COURSE! WE ARE THE MAGNIFICENT SIR BLUE AND THE GREAT SIR PAPYRUS, AND NO SCARY DRAGONS CAN STAND UP TO US!!!”

“WHAT ARE YOU IDIOTS YELLING ABOUT NOW?!” Ah, here comes Edge down the stairs, grumpy as always. “‘DRAGONS’?? PAH! I THOUGHT YOU TWO WERE SMART ENOUGH TO KNOW THAT FAIRY TALES AREN’T REAL, BUT IT SEEMS I WAS WRONG.”

“BUT IT  _ IS  _ REAL - LOOK!” Papyrus shows him his phone, and he and Blue instantly launch into the story behind the mysterious castle. Edge studies the pictures very intently for a moment before rudely interrupting their explanation.

“THIS STORY IS UTTER NONSENSE, AND I REFUSE TO BELIEVE A SECOND OF IT! HOWEVER…” He has a thoughtful expression on his face; across the room Red is already sweating, anticipating what is going to come next. “...IF THERE TRULY IS SOME SORT OF ‘DRAGON’ - WHICH THERE ISN’T! - THEN YOU CREAMPUFFS WOULD BE FAR TOO WEAK TO DEFEAT IT. NO, ONLY SOMEONE AS TERRIBLE AS  _ I _ WOULD BE ABLE TO SLAY SUCH A FEROCIOUS BEAST! BROTHER!” He points at Red, who instantly ducks down into his hoodie with wide eyes. “GET YOUR LAZY ASS OFF THE COUCH - WE ARE GOING TO FIND THIS SO-CALLED ‘DRAGON’ AND TEACH IT WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU MESS WITH THE TERRIBLE EDGE! NYEH HEH HEH!”

“uh… ya sure, boss?”

“DON’T QUESTION MY ORDERS, BROTHER!!! WE’RE GOING, AND THAT’S FINAL! YOU TWO: SEND ME ALL THE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS ‘CASTLE’ THAT YOU HAVE!”

When it became clear that Edge, Blue, and Papyrus really  _ were  _ serious about finding this castle, Sans and Stretch forced themselves to tag along.

And now here they are three days later, loaded up into two cars and driving through a forest that shouldn’t exist. 

In Papyrus’ convertible are Papyrus himself and Blue in the driver and passenger seat respectively. They are both wearing a knight’s outfit they made themselves - Papyrus’ having a more “plate armour” look, while Blue opted to go with chainmail. In the backseat are Sans and Stretch, who decided to stay in their signature sweaters for this adventure, much to their brothers’ disappointment (Stretch  _ did  _ try to bring a plastic horse head to wear, but Blue threw it out the window after the first ten minutes of horse puns). Trailing from somewhere behind them is Edge’s “Batmobile”, carrying only Edge (decked out in spiky “black knight” armour) and Red. Their vehicle is completely obscured by the fog. For all the other skeletons know, they might not even be following anymore.

Well, they  _ wouldn’t  _ know had Edge not suddenly started honking his horn and shouting unintelligibly. Suddenly, a motorcycle with two passengers rides up beside the convertible. It hovers for a moment - the skeleton on the back waves with an easy grin - and then the bike zips ahead, just narrowly avoiding a tree.

“I-I SHOULD HAVE BROUGHT MY BIKE TOO,” Blue laments aloud, staring ahead with some envy. Nobody told Black and Rus about the little quest they were all going on, but somehow the two found out about it anyways and had been tailing and taunting the other skeletons since they arrived at the hotel. 

It was a miracle that none of them were thrown out for nearly starting a fight in the hallway.

The region the castle had been spotted in was surprisingly close (comparatively speaking - when you consider most myths and fairy tales taking place “far far away”) to where the skeletons lived, but still required about a day of driving. So they did most of the driving on the first day and then found somewhere close to the castle’s presumed whereabouts to stay overnight. The locals were familiar with the myth of the castle, and a few even claimed to have seen it. The idea was that the castle only appeared at night, bringing a heavy fog down on the area. People claimed to get lost in a dense forest, wandering to the point of exhaustion. When they awoke to daylight, they were back in the grassy fields. Anyone who claimed to reach the castle had vague or contradictory accounts, leading to the skelebros to believe that not everyone they had been talking to had been exactly  _ honest.  _ One human in particular admitted it outright when Edge tried to threaten him for more information.

One interesting part of the myth is that this phenomenon only started occurring a few years ago. A few sources tried to twist the facts and claim it to be an ancient castle belonging to a royal and vengeful family from the days of old, but all the proof of its existence first appeared recently. 

Notably, it first started appearing  _ after  _ the barrier broke. 

So, if the whole story isn’t a load of human hogwash, then it’s pretty likely that this is just the world’s greatest prank on humanity at the hand of some monsters. That would be pretty funny, actually. Sans wouldn’t mind meeting them if that turned out to be the case.

Regardless, the lack of concrete information seemed to make Papyrus and Blue even more excited about their quest. Everyone else still had their doubts about the castle’s existence, but they definitely had enough curiosity to see this through. And so, when night fell again, the skeletons went to their respective vehicles and drove off.

It had been kind of fun for awhile, just driving together. Sans and Stretch infuriated their brothers by turning their road trip games into pun-offs. Edge and Black kept trying to outspeed each other on the open roads to get ahead, and would end up being overtaken by a sneaky Papyrus when he saw an opportunity. But then the fog began to settle, and the skeletons found themselves driving slower and slower as their vision was obscured - especially as roads vanished and trees began closing in on them. Looks like this part of the myth was correct, at least.

Another part of the myth that turned out correct was that they lost cell phone reception as soon as they entered the forest. Thank the stars that Edge, Blue, and Papyrus took it seriously and had the forethought to buy a bunch of maps from the local town… even if they are proving to be a bit useless right now.

“WHY ARE WE SLOWING DOWN?” Blue suddenly asks, noticing the scenery around them passing by much slower than before. Papyrus fiddles with the car in concern.

“I-IT’S NOT ME, THE CAR IS SLOWING DOWN ON ITS OWN! I CAN’T MAKE IT GO!” As if to emphasize his point, the car finally rolls to a complete stop. Just ahead, everyone can make out the blurry forms of Black and Rus, who are standing over the former’s motorcycle. 

“WORK, YOU USELESS PIECE OF TRASH!” Black gives it a kick, as if that would make it work again. It does not. “HOW COULD THIS BE HAPPENING?! IF WE DON’T HURRY, EVERYONE IS GOING TO GET AHEAD OF US--”

“uh, milord? it looks like everyone has just arrived.”

Black lets out a yelp and turns towards the red convertible, eyeing the exiting skeletons suspiciously. He’s wearing a handmade knight suit of his own, while Rus is wearing garb fit for a squire. “WHAT DO YOU WANT? TO BOAST ABOUT MY MISFORTUNE? MARK MY WORDS: THIS DOESN’T COUNT ME OUT OF THE RACE! I, THE MALEVOLENT BLACK, WILL KILL THE DRAGON AND SAVE THE PRINCESS BEFORE ANY OF YOU--”

“BLACK, DID YOUR BIKE STOP WORKING TOO?” Blue asks, and Black responds with a roll of his eyelights.

“DO YOU HAVE  _ EYELIGHTS?? _ OF COURSE IT DID, YOU IMBECILE! WHY ELSE WOULD I BE STOPPED HERE, BLATHERING WITH YOU-- WAIT, WHAT DO YOU MEAN ‘TOO’? ARE YOU--?”

“yeah, our car stopped working too,” Stretch replies as Sans and Papyrus open the hood to see what’s wrong. As if to support his point, Edge’s voice screeches from somewhere nearby, and soon he’s stomping into view with Red in tow.

“WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO MY CAR??”

“maybe this forest is cursed,” Red says with a shrug, pretending he isn’t worried (when he clearly is - evident by a lone bead of sweat on his skull). Blue gasps and looks around warily while Black groans.

“DON’T SAY SUCH STUPID DRIVEL! THERE’S NO SUCH THING.” Despite his words, Black’s eyelights dart around the area, trying to see something -  _ anything  _ \- through the fog. Sweat forms on his skull when he’s unsuccessful. 

“no curse,” Sans says, and everyone turns to look at him. “looks like it’s just magic build-up. that’s what all this fog is. should’ve known this wasn’t natural…”

“H-HA! SEE?!” Black not-so-subtly wipes away the sweat on his forehead and puts his hands on his hips. “I KNEW IT ALL ALONG! CURSED FORESTS DON’T EXIST.” 

“THAT DOESN’T FIX THE ISSUE OF MY CAR NOT WORKING!” Edge complains. Sans closes the hood before turning to face the group again.

“well, if the myth can be believed, then this magic fog will be gone by morning. that means the build-up should be too. that leaves the question… should we wait here until morning? or try and find the castle by foot?”

Nobody says anything for a moment, before finally Papyrus speaks up: “OF COURSE WE SHOULD KEEP LOOKING FOR THE CASTLE! WHO KNOWS HOW LONG THE PRINCESS HAS BEEN TRAPPED THERE - WE CAN’T KEEP HER WAITING ANY LONGER!”

“TH-THAT’S RIGHT!” Blue swallows his fears of the forest and stands with Papyrus, trying to look as confident and gallant as possible. “WE ARE FEARLESS KNIGHTS! WE CAN’T LEAVE A FAIR MAIDEN IN DISTRESS!”

“I’M NOT A COWARD!” Black roars, even though no one said anything of the sort. He starts marching deeper into the forest. “I  _ WILL  _ BE THE ONE TO FIND THE CASTLE AND SAVE THE PRINCESS FROM THE FEARSOME DRAGON! PERHAPS IF THE REST OF YOU DON’T GET IN MY WAY, I WILL RECOGNIZE YOU AS MY SIDEKICKS.”

“YOU IDIOTS BETTER NOT HOG  _ MY  _ GLORY WHEN  _ I _ AM THE ONE TO DEFEAT THE DRAGON!” Edge says, stomping after Black. Having someone following him prompts Black to pick up the pace with more confident strides. “I, THE TERRIBLE EDGE, WILL BE THE ONE TO PRESENT THE DRAGON’S HEAD TO THE PRINCESS.”

“of course bro‘s  _ actually  _ interested in th’ princess too...” Red grumbles wryly, following the bickering skeletons before they travel too far into the fog. All the other skeletons follow along as well, forming a tight eight-skeleman group as they trek through the forest. The woods are eerily silent save for the footsteps and voices of the travelling skeletons. The air feels thick from the magic fog, but it is just shy of being dense enough to feel hindering. 

“HOW DID YOU EVEN KNOW TO FOLLOW US HERE, BLACK?” Blue asks. No one had really thought to ask until now - and it’s not like they’re doing anything other than walking at the moment.

“YOU FOOLS CAN’T HIDE ANYTHING FROM ME!” Black says, letting out a prideful snicker. “IT WAS SO OBVIOUS WHAT YOU WERE DOING! MAKING ALL THIS STUPID ARMOUR? OBVIOUSLY, YOU WERE GOING ON A DARING QUEST! AND THERE’S NO ONE MORE DARING THAN I, THE MALEVOLENT BLACK!”

Black cackles to himself while Red rebuts with: “oh yeah? ya figured it out, huh? ya sure ya didn’t find out cuz ‘f yer stupid attack dog snoopin’ around our place?”

“A-ABSOLUTELY NOT! WE DON’T HAVE TIME TO BE SPYING ON YOU CRETINS EVERY HOUR OF THE DAY! TELL HIM, MUTT!”

“milord’s right,” Rus says nonchalantly and perhaps a bit too quickly, lighting up a dog treat. The purple smoke mingles with the whiteness of the fog.

“WELL, WE WOULD HAVE INVITED YOU IF WE HAD KNOWN YOU WERE INTERESTED!” Papyrus claims. And he meant it too! Even though Black and Rus chose to live separately from the rest of them, he still wanted to see everybody getting along and having fun together! “WE DIDN’T THINK GRAND QUESTS AND SAVING PRINCESSES WAS YOUR THING.”

“OF COURSE I’M INTERESTED,” Black scoffs. “I’M GOING TO BE THE ONE TO SLAY THE DRAGON AND SAVE THE PRINCESS. AND THEN, I’M GOING TO MAKE HER MY BRIDE!”

Everyone’s reaction is instantaneous. Red nearly trips over a tree root. Papyrus and Blue accidentally bump into and topple onto each other in their haste to turn and gape at Black. Stretch inhales the cigarette he was about to light and starts hacking and hitting his chest to get it out. Edge squawks an indignant and furious “WHAT?!” and his head nearly rotates 360 degrees, while Sans’ eyelight snuff out. The only one who keeps his cool is Rus, who has probably heard his bro’s declaration before. Everyone else has stopped walking while the two brothers keep marching on like nothing is wrong. 

“pal.  _ black, _ ” Sans starts, struggling to regain his composure. “that’s not… you can’t just--”

“YOU CAN’T JUST SAY THINGS LIKE THAT!!!” Papyrus shouts from the forest floor, where he and Blue are somehow tangled up in each others’ armour. “YOU HAVE TO TAKE IT SLOW! HAVEN’T YOU READ YOUR DATING MANUAL?!?!”

Black finally stops walking, turning on his heel to glare at the others. “THE DATING MANUAL DOESN’T MATTER IN A SPECIAL CASE LIKE THIS! HAVEN’T YOU UNCULTURED FOOLS SEEN  _ ANY  _ MOVIES LIKE THIS? WHEN A KNIGHT SAVES A PRINCESS, THEY LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER! ALWAYS!!! THE PRINCESS NEVER MARRIES THE LOWLY SQUIRE OR THE JESTER, OR EVEN THE KING THAT SENT THE KNIGHT ON THE QUEST… NO!! IT’S ALWAYS THE KNIGHT! AND THAT KNIGHT WILL BE  _ ME! _ ”

“somebody reads too many fairy tales,” Red mumbles, though there’s something oddly distant about his tone. Some of the other skeletons are wearing a similar expression, as if Black’s words have struck a chord within them. Black continues, unaware of the change in atmosphere.

“WHO CARES IF THEY’RE FAIRY TALES?! ONLY SOMEONE WITH ROYAL BLOOD IS WORTHY TO BE MY MATE, SO THE PRINCESS WILL BE  _ MINE. _ THE REST OF YOU SHOULD JUST GIVE UP AND GO HOME!”

Stretch manages to get the cigarette out of his ribcage and then finally lights it successfully. “what if the princess is ugly? still wanna marry her?”

Rus hides a laugh behind a snort. Thankfully, his brother doesn’t hear him over his shriek of disbelief. “WH-WHAT IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN, ASHTRAY?! ALL PRINCESSES ARE BEAUTIFUL - THAT’S A RULE! EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT!”

“is that so?”

“HE’S RIGHT, BROTHER!” Blue says, finally back on his feet after getting untangled from Papyrus, who is nodding to agree. “ALL PRINCESSES ARE BEAUTIFUL AND KIND! THAT WAS VERY RUDE OF YOU TO SUGGEST OTHERWISE.”

Stretch breathes out a bit of smoke and shrugs. “sorry bro.” He does not look or sound sorry at all, but Blue doesn’t seem to notice.

“THAT’S OKAY, BECAUSE WHEN I… WH-WHEN I SAVE THE PRINCESS…” He pauses, fidgeting with his phalanges, and when he looks back up... the stars in his eyes and the blush on his cheekbones are both so bright that they can very clearly be seen through the blanket of fog that hangs between them. “WHEN I SAVE THE PRINCESS, I-I’M GONNA ASK HER TO BE MY DATEMATE, AND THEN YOU’LL SEE HOW WONDERFUL SHE IS!!!”

Once again, Stretch is left sputtering, with smoke being released through every hole on his skull. He waves it away with his free hand. “h-heh, that’s great to hear, bro… i’m sure if anyone can do it, it’s you.”

“OF COURSE I CAN! MWEH HEH HEH!”

“I MUST ADMIT, YOU ARE A VERY CAPABLE KNIGHT, SIR BLUE, AND I’M SURE YOU COULD SAVE THE PRINCESS… BUT! YOU HAVE FORGOTTEN ONE THING!” Papyrus poses dramatically, the red scarf attached to his armour fluttering despite there being no wind. “I, THE GREAT SIR PAPYRUS, AM ALSO AIMING TO WIN THE FAIR MAIDEN’S HEART! AND I INTEND TO BE VICTORIOUS!”

Sans lets out an exasperated sigh. Hopefully, if any of them actually find the princess first (assuming there is one at all), he can talk them out of forcing the poor girl into a fairy tale marriage. “guys, let’s focus on finding the castle first. we don’t even know if there really  _ is  _ a princess.”

“THAT’S RIGHT,” Edge agrees, “YOU IMBECILES ARE GETTING AHEAD OF YOURSELVES, LIKE USUAL. BESIDES, IF THERE  _ WAS  _ A PRINCESS AND SHE HAD HALF A BRAIN AND ANY SENSE OF TASTE, SHE WOULD RECOGNIZE THAT I, THE TERRIBLE SIR EDGE, WOULD BE THE BEST MATE FOR SOMEONE OF HER PRESTIGE.”

Red snaps out of his mini-daydream upon hearing Edge’s proclamation. Yep, his bro really  _ was  _ interested in the princess. Ugh, Black and his stupid mouth. Even though Red recognizes this whole thing is stupid, he can’t help but wonder… what if  _ he  _ found the (hypothetical) princess? This sweet girl trapped in a tower by a ferocious dragon, waiting for her Prince Charming to come save her… no concept of the outside world… Though realistically, she’d probably scream at the sight of a talking skeleton-- no, he’d make a shitty pun and lay a killer pick-up line on her, and she’d giggle and blush. Or, what if he gets there and she’s trapped in an eternal sleep, and needs a kiss to wake up? Heck yeah, he’d give her one! Well, as best as he can with no lips anyways--

Sans glances over when he sees Red lagging slightly behind, narrowing his gaze when he notices the sweat and the drool at the corner of his jaw. Welp, there’s another skeleton to keep an eye on if they ever find this mythical castle.

Stars, he’s the only sane skeleton here, isn’t he? 

This was supposed to be a fun adventure that made his brother happy. They were supposed to drive around endlessly looking for this silly castle, then probably find a castle-shaped rock face and discover this whole thing was some crazy delusion made by one heck of a foggy night. Papyrus and Blue definitely would have been disappointed, but they would have had fun pretending to be knights for a day. Then they’d all go home and everything would go back to normal by the next day. ...Well, as  _ normal  _ as their current life can be, with six skeletons who are technically the same pair of brothers but from alternate universes living under one roof, not to mention another pair living next door in their big ugly gothic mansion. All because he started messing with that stupid machine again.

Even here on the Surface, he just can’t ever be happy with how things are, huh?

And that’s probably never going to change.


	2. Already Lost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which these skeletons are STILL lost in the fog.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so first off??? thank you for all the comments on the first chapter, i can see this is definitely popular! i'm still too busy to say whether or not i'll continue this, BUT the reception from the first chapter actually prompted me to lay out the scenes for the next chapter AKA the Castle Adventure Chapter. ...which turned into three chapters because there was SO MUCH. so the reader wouldn't appear til the end of chapter 5 now lmfao whoops. it's not like people clicked on this fic expecting reader-insert stuff, right? i swear this is a reader-focused story i just really like giving these guys several chapters of character building/establishing lol. 
> 
> anyways, this is probably a lame chapter to end on since it is clearly just set-up for the next one but i hope it is still pretty fun. i am actually going to include A PREVIEW FOR CHAPTER 3 at the end too since i have it lying around, so i hope yall enjoy that!!

With the fog so dense and the skeletons so caught up in their banter, the two leaders of the pack don’t notice the steep drop ahead until they’re slipping into it. Black lets out a yelp when he loses his footing, but Rus is there in an instant to grab him and yank him back onto solid ground. Red, however, had been lingering at the back of the group, and can’t even register what he’s seeing until it has already happened.

“b-bro!” He shortcuts to the edge of the cliff and peers down with genuine worry. “a-are you alright--?”

“WHO DO YOU THINK YOU’RE TALKING TO?!” Red sighs with relief as Edge yells up at him, unharmed. Using his INCREDIBLE REFLEXES, Edge had manifested a bone and jammed it into the cliffside before he could fall too far. Dangling from it, he does a very impressive flip and lands back on top of the cliff with the others.

“I-I CAN’T SEE THE BOTTOM AT ALL!” Papyrus says with a slight tinge of worry to his voice as he crouches down and squints into the abyss. All he can see is blackness and fog. Stretch takes a rock and drops it down the crevasse.

If it hits the bottom, nobody hears it.

“...W-WELL!” Blue tries to hide his growing unease with a confident stance. “MY FELLOW BRAVE KNIGHTS AND LAZY SQUIRES: IT SEEMS WE HAVE REACHED A ‘FORK IN THE ROAD’! WH-WHICH WAY SHOULD WE GO NOW?”

He’s right - the crevasse seems to stretch to their left and right as far as the eye can see (which isn’t very far right now, to be fair). The fog is too thick to see if there’s an “other side”, or any possible way of getting there.

“SHOULD WE PERHAPS SPLIT UP?” Papyrus suggests, even though he doesn’t look incredibly keen on the idea. “THEN IF ONE OF US FINDS SOMETHING, WE CAN JUST YELL REALLY LOUD TO ALERT THE OTHERS!”

“i don’t think that’s a good idea,” Stretch says, lighting his third cigarette since they’ve all been lost in the fog. He’s getting a bit anxious, but he’s doing very well at not letting it seep into his expression. “we haven’t heard anything except each other since entering the fog, right? who’s to say we’ll be able to hear each other if we’re too far away?”

“M-MAYBE WE COULD DO A TEST?” Blue asks. “WE’LL JUST KEEP GOING UNTIL WE CAN’T HEAR EACH OTHER ANYMORE, AND THEN WE’LL COME BACK!”

“BAH, I DON’T HAVE TIME FOR THIS!” Black announces, stomping to the right. “I’M GOING THIS WAY - YOU FOOLS CAN DO WHATEVER YOU WANT!”

“GREAT, BECAUSE I WAS PLANNING ON GOING  _ THIS  _ WAY!” Edge yells, turning to start marching leftwards. “WHICH, AS YOU’LL DISCOVER SOON ENOUGH, IS THE  _ CORRECT  _ WAY!”

“IN YOUR DREAMS, EDGELORD!” Black taunts, already nearly out of sight despite his voice still loud enough to sound like he’s still right next to everybody. “BY THE TIME YOU REACH THE CASTLE, YOU’LL FIND THAT I’VE ALREADY SAVED THE PRINCESS. IN FACT, YOU’LL BE SO SLOW THAT WE’LL PROBABLY ALREADY BE MARRIED WHEN YOU GET THERE. MWEH HEH HEH!”

“THAT WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE, UNLESS YOU AVOIDED THE DRAGON LIKE A  _ COWARD! _ ” Edge is practically screeching into the fog now, finally snapping his head to where Red is standing. “BROTHER! DON’T STAND THERE GAWKING LIKE AN IDIOT - GET OVER HERE!”

“r-right away, chief!” Red scoots over to his brother and the two of them start walking deeper into the fog. Rus has already vanished, assumedly following his own brother, who is also gone. Sans, Stretch, Papyrus, and Blue are the only ones still standing there. Blue nervously glances in both directions, then down at the crevasse.

“S-SO ARE WE SPLITTING UP AFTER ALL, OR…?” 

Stretch sighs, cigarette smoke billowing out of his mouth as his shoulders sag. “looks like it.”

“hey bro, why don’t we follow edge and red?” Sans suggests to Papyrus, then to the other pair of brothers: “then you guys can follow black. i don’t think either of them are the type to report to the others if they find anything.”

“YES, THEY DISPLAY VERY POOR KNIGHTSMANSHIP!” Papyrus nods. “WE SHOULD ALL BE WORKING TOGETHER TO SAVE THE PRINCESS!”

“YOU’RE RIGHT,” Blue agrees, looking a bit sheepish. “THE PRINCESS’ SAFETY IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN A SILLY COMPETITION! I-I ALMOST FORGOT THAT FOR A MINUTE - I’M SORRY!”

Stretch gives his brother a pat. “it’s ok, bro. anyone would be excited to meet a princess. after all, it’s the  _ highness  _ honour one can experience.”

Both Papyrus and Blue groan. “PAPY!!! YOU WERE DOING SO WELL AT  _ NOT  _ MAKING PUNS ON OUR GRAND ADVENTURE!”

“sorry bro. i  _ quest  _ this fog has been making it hard for me to think them up.”

“UGH!!”

“so then it’s decided?” Sans asks, chuckling. “we should get going before we lose track of the others. that would be a  _ knight _ mare.”

“I’M ALREADY IN A NIGHTMARE!” Papyrus announces, marching towards the left. “YELL IF YOU FIND ANYTHING, SIR BLUE! GOOD LUCK!!”

“I WISH YOU LUCK AS WELL, SIR PAPYRUS!”

And with that, eight skeletons split into two groups of four.

* * *

“what th’ fuck??” Red’s voice cuts through the fog, prompting the others to stop and backtrack to his position to see what’s got him in a tizzy. “guys, come check this out.”

“THIS BETTER NOT BE A WASTE OF TIME,” Edge warns, even though he was already set on making his way back. When the other three skeletons gather round, Red shows off what he found - which looks like a completely ordinary rock from the environment.

“watch.” Red tightens his grip, and after a moment, the rock cracks and crumbles between his phalanges. Impatient, Edge groans and rolls his eyes.

“IS THAT IT? YOU WANTED TO SHOW OFF YOUR MEAGER STRENGTH? BY ASGORE’S BEARD, IF YOU THINK--”

“ _ wait, _ ” Red hisses, and the interruption would have sent Edge on another angry tirade, had something very strange not happened in that very moment.

Slowly, the grains of rock rise from where they fell onto the ground, returning to Red’s hand. Coming together, it reforms the larger rock it had initially been just seconds ago, as if it had never been broken in the first place. Papyrus gasps, while Edge snatches the rock from his brother’s hand to inspect it.

“HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?!” Edge brings the stone close to his eyes, trying to find the slightest irregularity. “THIS ISN’T ONE OF YOUR PRANKS, IS IT??”

“no, of course not! try it for yerself if ya think i’m lyin’.”

Edge hesitates before mercilessly crushing the rock with a single clench of his fist. Despite the dust flying everywhere, it slowly reforms to be exactly like it was before, just like with Red. 

“WOWIE! IS IT A MAGIC ROCK??” Papyrus asks. Sans looks around until he finds another rock on the ground, then picks it up to inspect it.

“i’m not sure… there’s too much magic in the air to tell the difference.” And is it ever weird to not  _ know  _ something like that. Even if it was a magic rock… why would it have the ability to repair itself like that? Sure, regeneration isn't unheard of or impossible amongst monsters, but… so quickly?? And with such accuracy?? Even if this whole scenario  _ is  _ just some monsters’ tricks, it makes no sense for the rock to behave like that. 

Maybe it's a stretch to jump to this conclusion, but It reminds him of one thing... and he’s wondering if Red is thinking the same. 

Sans finds himself reminded of the timelines stopping and restarting during their time Underground. The endless loop they were all trapped in, helpless as it happened over and over again. The difference here, however, is that he’s  _ watching  _ the rock be repaired. It’s not an instantaneous leap back to a previous state of time itself. Instead, it's more like an isolated rewind button. Time marches on for the rest of them, while the rock is the only one to go backwards. 

It’s a shame that this rock doesn’t have a SOUL. Otherwise, they could probably gleam more information from it...

Hoping that he may be able to inspect it later, Sans puts the rock in his pocket. As the others are still distracted by experimenting with the rocks in the area (Edge has moved onto spearing them violently with bones), Sans takes a few steps further along the “path” they’ve been following before stopping dead in his tracks, seeing an outline in the fog. 

“uh, guys? found a bridge.”

Everyone looks up and immediately rushes over, taking a few more steps forward as a group until the rickety wooden bridge is clearly in view. It extends across the crevasse, but the fog is too thick to see where it may end. Edge furrows his bone brow and glares at it suspiciously.

“I DON’T REMEMBER SEEING THIS A MINUTE AGO…” 

“IT MUST HAVE JUST BEEN BEYOND OUR FIELD OF VISION!” Papyrus explains, oblivious to the contemplative air around him. “I’LL CALL THE OTHERS!” He turns back the way they came and cups his hands around his jaw. “SIR BLUE!!! WE FOUND A PRECARIOUS BRIDGE TO LEAD US ACROSS THE CHASM - COME QUICK!!!”

They wait...

...but there is no response.

There is nothing but silence. Not even the wind makes a peep. Papyrus frowns, sweating nervously.

“SIR BLUE?! CAN YOU HEAR ME??” Again, there is nothing. “OH DEAR… I DIDN’T REALIZE WE HAD WALKED SO FAR APART!” Papyrus pulls out his phone just to make sure-- yep, no reception. Of course. 

“BAH, LEAVE THEM!” Edge says, approaching the bridge. “THEY CHOSE NOT TO FOLLOW MY INTUITION, AND NOW THEY WILL SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES FOR IT! WE WILL BE THE ONES TO REACH THE CASTLE FIRST!”

“IT’S NOT A RACE, EDGE! WE SHOULD BE WORKING TOGETHER TO SAVE THE PRINCESS!”

Edge rolls his eyes. “IF THAT’S WHAT YOU WANT TO BELIEVE, THEN GO AHEAD! IT WILL MAKE MY VICTORY ALL THE MORE EASIER!” Standing in front of the bridge, he peers at it dubiously. He doesn’t make a move to start across it. “WH-WHO BUILT THIS POOR EXCUSE FOR INFRASTRUCTURE?! THIS IS A DISGRACE TO THE ROYAL FAMILY THAT LIVES HERE! ABSOLUTELY SHAMEFUL!!!”

When the wooden planks aren’t missing outright, they’re broken or rotting. The ropes are frayed and occasionally even dangling uselessly below. The wooden posts holding the bridge up are bent and look like they’ll crumble away with the smallest amount of pressure. 

In other words: this bridge sucks ass.

“no wonder almost no one has seen th’ castle,” Red says, reaching out to touch a post but thinks better of it. “nobody probably fuckin’ makes it past here. never mind th’ dragon...”

“DO YOU THINK THERE MIGHT BE ANOTHER ENTRANCE?” Papyrus suggests, trying to hide the fact that he’s not too keen on crossing this bridge. “PERHAPS THIS IS JUST A TRICK ENTRANCE... TO FOOL UNWORTHY ADVENTURERS!” Edge visibly bristles at the idea, narrowing his sockets at their surroundings and tries to find sign of  _ anything  _ else.

“AS MUCH AS I LOATHE TO ADMIT IT, YOU ARE PROBABLY RIGHT, CREAMPUFF. NO SELF-RESPECTING MEMBER - OR SERVANT! - OF THE ROYAL FAMILY WOULD LET THIS ATROCITY STAND. IT’S UNSIGHTLY! IT IS CERTAINLY A TRAP. HOWEVER…” Edge slowly places a hand on one of the posts, with much more gentleness than is usually expected from him. Something along the bridge creaks slightly - echoing loudly in the emptiness around them - but nothing has broken yet. “WE DO NOT HAVE TIME TO LOOK FOR ANOTHER ENTRANCE! WE MUST USE THIS ONE.”

Papyrus’ sockets go so wide that his eyeballs would pop out of his head if he had any. “A-ARE YOU REALLY STILL TRYING TO TURN THIS INTO A COMPETITION?! NOW IS NOT THE TIME, EDGE--!”

“YOU FOOL!” Edge whirls around and glares at his counterpart. Sans instinctively hovers a bit closer to Papyrus protectively, even though he  _ knows  _ that even if Edge chose to start a fight, his bro could handle himself just fine. “THIS BRIDGE IS A CHALLENGE! A CHALLENGE MADE FOR HUMANS, NO DOUBT! AND I AM NOT A PATHETIC HUMAN - I AM THE TERRIBLE SIR EDGE!!! THIS BRIDGE DOES NOT STAND A CHANCE AGAINST ME.” He turns back towards the bridge, gripping both posts more harshly this time, prompting a louder creak to ring out. “IF YOU WANT TO TAKE THE COWARD’S ROUTE AND FIND ANOTHER ENTRANCE - FINE! BUT I AM GOING TO TAKE THIS WAY... AND REACH THE CASTLE FIRST AS A RESULT!”

Oof, this isn’t good. They’ve already split up once, and Sans doesn’t think it would be wise if they did it again. Additionally, that bridge looks like  _ actual  _ garbage. Maybe one of them could cross at a time, but would it really stay intact for all of them to get across? 

Perhaps a little testing is in order.

Sans approaches the bridge as well, glancing down at it before looking up at Edge. “ok, before we decide on anything,  _ wood  _ you mind doing a little experiment for me?” Punctuate that with a wink to emphasize the wordplay, and Edge is nearly screaming in anger. Totally unnecessary, but Sans just can’t help himself.

“NOT IF YOU’RE GOING TO MAKE MORE IDIOTIC PUNS!” 

“aw, edge, why’s it gotta be like that? i thought we had  _ built a bridge _ between us--”

“I’M LEAVING!!!”

“wait, ok, i’ll be serious. heh.” Edge’s boot hovers just over the first panel of the bridge as he stares at Sans impatiently, waiting for him to continue. Wow, he must really not  _ actually  _ want to go out there if he’s willing to risk hearing more puns. “i was just thinking: why don’t we test the bridge first? just by putting pressure on the first step.”

There is a pause, and Edge huffs. “OF COURSE! EVEN AN IDIOT WOULD KNOW TO DO THAT!”

“really? cuz it looked like y’ were gonna rush out there t’ prove a point.”

Edge glares hard at Red’s mumbling, who starts sweating the second he notices he was heard. “WHAT DO YOU TAKE ME FOR?? AN IMBECILE??? I DIDN’T BECOME SECOND-IN-COMMAND OF THE ROYAL GUARD BY LETTING MY PRIDE GET IN THE WAY OF MY BETTER JUDGEMENT!” 

“...heh. of course not. ya got there by bein’ one’ve th’ coolest ‘n strongest monsters out there.”

“YOU’RE DAMN RIGHT, AND DON’T YOU FORGET IT!” Satisfied, Edge turns back towards the bridge, ready to start the test. Tentatively, he lowers his boot on the first plank of wood, which looks in about average condition. Not the best, but not among the worst either. The plank takes a surprising amount of applied force before it finally snaps in two.

“THERE! THE TESTING STAGE IS NOW COMPLETE! I MUST SAY, THAT WAS STURDIER THAN IT LOOKED. WE MIGHT ACTUALLY BE ABLE TO-- WAIT, HOLD ON,  **_WHAT??_ ** ”

To Edge’s (and everyone else’s) surprise, the plank behaves similarly to how the rock did, lifting itself back up and fusing the broken halves back together. Edge warily tries putting weight on it again, finding it’s as sturdy as it was previously. 

“i thought so,” Sans mumbles, too low to be heard by anyone other than Red. The two of them share a  _ look, _ having come to the same hypothesis.

_ This whole area is trapped in a time loop. _

* * *

* * *

**_(THE FOLLOWING IS A PREVIEW FOR CHAPTER 3:)_ **

The massive drawbridge creaks and hits the ground in front of them, offering safe passage to the other side. Black stands triumphantly, hands on his hips. Rus is clapping.

“MWEH HEH HEH! YOU SEE?  _ THAT’S  _ HOW IT’S DONE! YOU’D DO WELL TO LEARN FROM ME, SIR BLUE!”

“WOW BLACK, THAT WAS AMAZING!” After what felt like ages of wandering, the four of them eventually came across a trail that led back into the woods. With some quick deductive reasoning, they concluded that there must have been a drawbridge across the abyss - AKA, the front entrance of the castle. In response to Black’s success, Blue’s resulting amazement was genuine… for the most part. “IT ONLY TOOK YOU EIGHT TRIES TO KNOCK DOWN THE BRIDGE!”

Black’s grin falters. “W-WELL… THOSE FIRST SEVEN TIMES DIDN’T COUNT! THEY WERE WARM-UPS! AND THE WIND…”

There was no wind.

“welp, we don’t want to keep that princess waiting, do we?” Stretch is the first to step onto the lowered drawbridge, silently surprised at how sturdy it is. Black takes off running with Blue quick to follow, both quickly overtaking the orange-clad skeleton and disappearing into the fog ahead. Stretch continues walking at a leisurely pace, allowing himself a moment to be lost in his own thoughts.

_ Only  _ eight tries, huh? While those first few throws had been carefully calculated, Black’s bone throwing eventually became aggressive and random. Did he really knock it down by sheer coincidence? Or is this all part of whatever  _ illusion  _ is happening here?

“what, don’t think  _ milord’s  _ good enough to have knocked it down on his own?” The sound of Rus’ voice gives Stretch a start, which he  _ tries  _ to hide, but the other skeleton’s grin informs him that he’s unsuccessful. 

“nah, it’s not that. well, i mean, your bro isn’t quite as cool as mine, soooo…” Stretch reaches for another cigarette just to find he’s all out. Rus generously offers the dog treat he’s currently smoking, and Stretch almost takes it… but declines. Maybe another time, in another place. Y’know, when they’re not lost (trapped?) in a nonexistent forest. Since he’s got his counterpart here, however…

“hey, you didn’t help him land that shot, did you?”

“wow. just thought you said you weren’t thinking that.” Rus’ attempt to be mock-hurt is pretty weak. He breathes out another puff of smoke. “...but no, i didn’t. don’t think it would have helped, honestly.”

Something is  _ definitely  _ going on here.

“PAPY, WE DID IT! WE’RE FINALLY IN THE CASTLE!”

“MUTT! WHERE ARE YOU?! GET OVER HERE!!!”

Stretch and Rus glance at each other one last time before they pick up the pace to catch up to their brothers. As soon as they breach the castle walls, the fog lowers and allows them to see further than they’ve been able to in a long while. 

This castle has  _ definitely  _ seen better days.

**_(to be continued...)_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...aaaand that's all i have for now! wish i at least had up to where the reader was introduced, but i assume i got scared off by incoming Dragon Fight scenes. probably for the best because i think my new outline is better than whatever i would have come up with before lol. 
> 
> ANYWAYS, i hope these were a fun two chapters! again, if you want to see more, i highly encourage you to leave a comment so my brain will want to write more when i get the time in a few months. thank you very much for reading, and i hope you have a lovely day! <3

**Author's Note:**

> do you want to see more of this fic?? then please consider leaving a comment! as mentioned at the start of the fic, i am on a schedule to post all of my drafts while i am focusing on WRITING A REAL LIFE NOVEL(!!!) so i don't have any plans to continue this fic yet! but that can change if the fic gets enough interest, so please don't hesitate to leave something! 
> 
> get updates on what i'm doing on twitter: @Yoshichao  
> thank you for reading!!!


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